Counter-terrorism blog endorses Edwards plan

[rodeodance]

Forum Name General Discussion: Politics
Topic subject Counter-terrorism blog endorses Edwards plan
Topic URL http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3517708#3517708
3517708, Counter-terrorism blog endorses Edwards plan
Posted by Catchawave on Thu Sep-13-07 12:53 PM

The first multi-expert blog dedicated solely to counterterrorism issues, serving as a gateway to the community for policymakers and serious researchers. Designed to provide realtime information about terrorism cases and policy developments.


A New International Counter-terrorism Organization Makes Good Sense
By Victor Comras

John Edwards’ proposal for a new international Counterterrorism and Intelligence Treaty Organization (CITO) deserve serious consideration. Edwards has put his finger on the single most important shortcoming in the war on terrorism – the serious lack of international cooperation and coordination in efforts to grapple with terrorism on a world wide scale. The United Nations, and the various terrorism related committees established by the Security Council, have simply failed to carry out this important function. (see my numerous blogs on this topic: (1), (2), (3), (4), and (5) here, ). This has left a void that the United States and certain other countries have sought to fill by establishing various ad hoc bilateral arrangements, and this process has produced only limited, and very uneven, success.

While intelligence sharing and cooperation between the United States and certain European countries, directly, and under the auspices of the Roma-Lyon Group, has borne some fruit, other bilateral cooperative arrangements have proved sterile, and in some cases, even counter-productive. Numerous countries have complained that counter terrorism intelligence cooperation with the United States is too often a one way street, with US intelligence agencies proving overly reluctant to provide detailed intelligence to overseas agencies. Most acknowledge that the US has acted quickly to help foreign governments thwart imminent terrorist attacks, but, they complain that follow-up information upon which to base prosecution and continued incarceration, is frequently lacking. And US intelligence officers have also often complained of the spottiness and unreliability of information flowing to the US from foreign intelligence agencies. Without an ability to pool information, and compare notes, terrorist activists, including those recruiting and funding terrorists, and planning and carrying out terrorist attacks, often escape prosecution, or otherwise fall through the cracks.

The Roma-Lyon Group has proved to be the most effective international cooperative counter-terrorism effort to date. Following the 9/11 attacks, G8 Home Affairs and Justice Ministers agreed to combine the Roma group (set up by G7 countries in 1978 to foster intelligence and internal security cooperation) and the Lyon Group (established in 1996 to foster law enforcement cooperation in combating transnational crime). The combined forum was charged with developing and implementing recommendations to combat terrorism. Its work quickly extended to developing cooperative intelligence and enforcement arrangements, and to developing “best practices’ in combating terrorism that could be shared with other countries. However, it membership and scope is quite limited, it has not become an intelligence pooling organization, and intelligence, investigative, judicial and enforcement actions are still handled only on an ad hoc basis through bilateral --country to country – channels.

The UN’s failure to serve as an effective cooperative counter terrorism forum stems from several factors. At the base is the failure of the UN General Assembly and Security Council to develop a clear definition of terrorism. This reflects, in turn, a serious absence of consensus as to which groups should be labeled as terrorists. While there is a general agreement that Al Qaeda is a terrorist organization, the Organization of the Islamic Conference Countries continues to resist labeling Hamas, Hizbollah, and many other other Palestinian, North African, Kashmiri, and other so called “resistance movements” as terrorist organizations, despite the fact that they regularly employ terrorist tactics, including suicide bombings aimed at inflicting civilian casualities. This lack of a definition of terrorism has largely gutted the usefulness of the UN’s Counter-Terrorism Committee, and the effectiveness of UN Security Council Resolution 1373.

cont'd at: http://counterterrorismblog.org/2007/09/a_new_international_counterter.php/

[Catchawave]

1. Thanks !

:toast: